The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-10-14


California to build eastward and the
Union Pacific of Nebraska to build west
ward till they met, each road to have
mileage subsidy and land grant for the
distance it constructed the road They
met at Promontory Point, spur of the
Idaho mountains, which runs down into
the Great Salt lake of Utah; and there, on
the 10th of May, 1869, the celebrated
"last spike" was driven with silver
hammer, with imposing ceremonies, in
Guiding prayer, some fairly good oratory
and q deal of very bad poetry. AS the
country has happily forgotten all that
was said and read there, let us not revive
the agony. The two roads soon after
agreed to put their junction at the
old Mormon town of Ogden, east of
the lake, and in time they passed
under one management. Both corpora
tions began their great work in the darkest
period of the civil war, and completed it
during the era of highest prices and the
flood tide of grccnbacks and speculation.
The cost therefore was enormous and the
legislative scandals fearful-all the latter
just now recalled to memory by the recent
investigation by the Pacific railway COM
mission. The road starts at Omaha and
after entering the Platte valley enters on
rise of ten feet to the mile-so the passen-
ger is higher than the tops of the Allie
ghanies before he gets in sight of the
laockies, without observing the ascent
From Cheyenne to Sherman the rise is
very rapid, and thence to the summit of
the Wasatch the road is on o ridge or
plateau, crossing occasional ridges; from
Wasatch, second highest point on the line,
It descends rapidly $500 feet to the shore
Of Salt Lake, and then crosses near 60O
miles of desert and low rocky ridge to the
Sierra Nevada where the highest station
is but little over 1000 feet.
The Northern Pacific was next in time.
Completely crushed by the great panic Of
1878, the projectors waited patiently till
the revival of business; then reorganized,
completed the line, and actually bought
the old bonds, which were considered
worthless for while, up to para finan-
cial success without parallel. Duluth, the
starting point on Lake Superior, is but 600
feet above the sea, and the road encoun-
ters but slight elevations till it reaches the
heart of the Rocky mountains; but expert
ence has shown that winter travel on it is
but little more obstructed than on more
southern roads. A great advantage is
found in the fact that the road traverses
very little alkan land, the dust of the
"soda plains being great annoyance on
the southern roads. The Canadian Pacific
has still less alkai land, but more desert,
as it crosses the great Keewattin wilder
ness, that high, rocky plateau stretching
from Lake Superior to the Arctic ocean,
which is supposed to be the remains of a
lofty mountain of plutonic rock, the rock
having been swept southwark by icebergs,
and scattered in the form of powders and
drift gravel. West Of that it crosses the
vast and very fertile plain Of Red river;
west of that good grazing country, and
then the mountains and British Columbia.
In our own territory the Southern or
Texas Pacific was the first favored, and
was the particular pet" of Jefferson
Davis when secretary of war. We bought
part of the region it traverses, under the
Gadsden treaty of 1858, only because ssthe
level of the Gila was the natural route
for o transcontinental railway The
war ruined the scheme, apparently. Yet
it was revived in 1875 and the road was
completed in 1881. It is already the fa-
yorite route for winter and spring. The
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe runs
through rather the toughest region of
any, traversing about / Zoo miles Of al
most unbroken mountain and desert,
from the Rio Grande to the valleys OF
California west OF the Sierras. Yet it
probably has more startling curiosities on